Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmyj
Is there a big differences between .50/70 and .45/70 ?
The U.S. Army went from .50/70 to .45/70 so I assume that .45/70 was an improvement ?
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I can speak a bit from experience as I owned original Sharps rifles in both 50-70 and 45-70. The 50 cal is similar to 20ga shotgun slugs. They leave a big hole. IIRC my history of Army cartidge evolution, the Civil War era sharps were originally 54 caliber breachloading percussion guns. When these rfles were changed to metalic cartridges from the 54 paper carts/tape primer , the barrels wer arsenal relined to the 50-70. Remington also made #1 Rolling blocks in this new cartridge.
The 45-70 carts gave better trajectory through higher velocity. I think the first military Shars in this cart were the Borchardts but I'm not sure of that. Springfield also made 50-70 chmberings in their trapdoor rifles but had switched to 45-70 by the 1873 model which Gen. George Custer carried to his death.
Single shot historians, please correct any errors my foggy memory injected.